Jürgen Klopp has confirmed Liverpool are already planning for next season but insisted their defeat to Manchester City in Sunday’s Capital One Cup Final did not alter his long-held opinion that his current players can compete against the country’s best teams.
Liverpool face City again tomorrow in a Premier League game at Anfield and Klopp has urged his players to show that they are “greedy” to win such testing fixtures but his admission that preparations for next season are already underway will raise further questions about how many will remain at the Merseyside club after the summer.
“Clearly we plan for next season,” the Liverpool manager said. “We have to wait for the right decision and we have to think about a lot of things. There is nothing to say yet. It is not I can say that we are close to this decision or that decision. But we work the whole day and it is not just preparing for games. In the end we have to plan for the future and that is what we are doing.”
Among those with most to prove between now and the end of this season are Simon Mignolet, Christian Benteke, Alberto Moreno and Adam Lallana but in the short term at least Klopp maintains he does not doubt his team’s ability to get a positive result against City, regardless of their defeat to Manuel Pellegrini’s side at the weekend.
“First of all you have to analyse it realistically. You have to take all the things but especially with the final experience it was our first experience together and we can use maybe in another final,” Klopp said. “About the rest, analysing the game, we saw again we are capable of really good things. We had more than 60 per cent possession against a football-playing side but there were a lot of good moments, created a few chances but not enough with the possession we had.
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“It is not possible to change history with the game on Wednesday; we cannot say if we win this game tomorrow someone will give us the Capital One Cup. We have to show we are ready again and that is all it is about. At the end it is a long way to go in the season, we have a lot of games. It has to be a disappointment to lose a final but it was not like we played really bad.
“We did a lot of good things but not enough. We showed we can be really strong. We have to show this tomorrow. Maybe City make a few changes, I don’t know, but if they do they are still strong enough to win any Premier League game. We have to show after defeat you are more greedy than we were before and that is what we have to show tomorrow.”
Lucas Leiva is almost certainly out of tomorrow’s game with a thigh injury, while Klopp is waiting to discover whether or not Mamadou Sakho will be involved after a clash of heads in the first half of the final. Daniel Sturridge’s fitness will also be assessed after the forward suffered cramp in the closing stages against City.
“It doesn’t look too good with Lucas, who doesn’t look like being available. He had problems with the muscle when he shot the penalty and he has got some more problems so I think he is not available,” Klopp said. “With Mama I don’t know exactly. I’ve not heard anything until now about any real issue but I have to wait for the final judgment of the doctor. Daniel with the cramps. We don’t want to go risking tomorrow but who is available is available but I have to wait a few more hours to know more.”